Maelstrom Wanderer - the spirit of EDH turned evil.

The great EDH project continues! this time it's the first 3-color generals, and the one I fear the most: Maelstrom Wanderer. I usually prefer control decks, or at least aggro-control. This deck is just off-the-rails crazy ramp-and-draw-and-drop-bombs-like-it's-world-war-3.

This isn't my usual strategy, so if I missed any crucial bombs let me know. Or if I missed any powerful ramp. Or draw. Those being basically the only things the deck has.

The great EDH project continues! this time it's the first 3-color generals, and the one I fear the most: Maelstrom Wanderer. I usually prefer control decks, or at least aggro-control. This deck is just off-the-rails crazy ramp-and-draw-and-drop-bombs-like-it's-world-war-3.

This isn't my usual strategy, so if I missed any crucial bombs let me know. Or if I missed any powerful ramp. Or draw. Those being basically the only things the deck has.

This is probably the best looking Wanderer list I've seen on these forums. A few of your inclusions (Forbidden Orchard, Arcanis the Omnipotent, Grim Monolith, and Ancient Tomb) I will definitely try to find space for in my build. I like that you focus as heavily on ramping as you do (I haven't seen anyone else paying the likes of Palladium Myr (possible I've overlooked it in other lists), but in the same vein, there are a number of rampers that I think are missing.

Because the deck ramps so well, and it can be so vital to reload after a Wanderer or if our opponents have stopped the first wanderer, I like to include some of the high cost card draw spells since they are great both off of cascade and are able to be hard-cast incredibly early.

As for other payoff cards, with Tooth and Nail and Avenger of Zendikar both in the deck, I like to Play Craterhoof Behemoth (I love that you can still entwine off of a cascade). Following on the theme of entwining off of cascaded spells, Rite of Replication is absolutely bonkers in here. Especially if you run a few more Time Walk effects, and either Eternal Witness or Archaeomancer (both hard locks with Time Walk in bin and Rite of Rep since you can replicate targeting Witness to get back both Time Walk and Rite of Replication).

I also really like Mana Drain as the deck's only counter (nuts as a ramp spell PLUS counter for insane tempo) although I understand it's very expensive. Other than that, I feel as if a lot of the payoff spells just come down to personal preference/play style and what other choices you made for the deck. I play Food Chain, so I love Molten Primordial. My meta runs a lot of Time Walks, so I love Diluvian Primordial. Because most decks I happen to play against have at least Time Warp effects and most have Time Stretch, Knowledge Exploitation is a bomb. I need to get a Bribery to test as well, but my only copy is in my mono U deck at the moment.

good call on some of the ramp, I forgot some of the stronger mana elves and land enchantments. Any idea what you'd cut for them?

sphinx of uthuun and knowledge exploitation were close to making the cut, but ended up getting eliminated. Which bombs would you eliminate for them?

harmonize, concentrate, and tidings all seem ok but sort of subpar compared to some of the other options. Is there anything you'd cut for them?

I do have a mana crypt in the list, you must have missed it. probably because the list has next to zero organization.

Well, I want to preface this by saying that my direction with the deck is to focus so hard on plan A that I leave very little room for plan B. But plan A is to make mana as quickly as possible and insane spells. What's nice about it is unless you are under intense, concentrated hate, and alongside the hate the board is trying to kill you, the deck still succeeds because it topdecks like no other. Now, I have a stronger extra turn theme in my build (I run Warp and Manipulation, but also Temporal Mastery and Walk the Aeons (I would play Capture of Jingzhou if I had it, and am in the process of acquiring a Time Stretch) so some of my card choices are geared a bit toward that. What I like about them is that early game they are essentially Explore for much more mana, and once a Wanderer hits, they are typically lethal. Used early, they get Wanderer out a turn faster and sit in the bin for a Witness or Archaeomancer once the deck goes off.

As far as your ramp, I am not a big fan of Recross the Paths or Life From the Lome. Recross is, in my opinion, worse than the 4 mana get two land spells (of which at least Ranger's Path is absent from your list). The reasoning behind this is, while we are good at clashing, I usually don't want to devote two turns to accomplish what one of the other three mana ramp spells accomplish. Because of the abundance of 3 mana spells that net us two extra mana in the coming turns, it pales in comparison in my mind. Lome is an engine, in my opinion, and not really ramp. It does work with our fetch lands, but that is a slow process relative to how explosive this deck can be (turn two or turn three Wanderers just happen, which is barely fair). As such, I like to leave engine-based card advantage to war of attrition-style decks. Additionally, Lome is best with the cycle lands that ETB tapped, and we hate losing tempo like that.

Urban Evolution is a card I played in my earlier iterations of the deck, but the extra one mana made too much of a difference pretty consistently in comparison to Concentrate or Harmonize. And for the same mana investment, Tidings gets an extra card. I loved the extra land drop at first, but cmc 5 is not where we want to be ramping a mere +1. It's still a good filler card, but I don't like it in a mostly finished list, and in my opinion that's where your deck is at this point. Your framework is really strong, you just need to test and test, and cut and cut. If your testing disagrees with my suggestions, go with your testing.

Exploitation I would only add if you see a number of decks running Time Stretch. It's solid when it fetches a Time Warp, but dedicating 7 mana to a slot where Time Warp is the highest upside is not worth it in my opinion. But being able to cascade into Time Stretch just ends the game roughly 100% of the time.

I really like Burgeoning as a card, but not as much in this deck. I want my cards in Wanderer to scale as well as possible, and hitting Burgeoning off of a cascade is a total boner deflater. I like the tap for mana ramp guys because of the haste that Wanderer gives them, it allows them to contribute right away even if they are mediocre off of cascade. You can always use them to play card draw spells or if you have Garruk on his Overrun. This applies to some extent with Exploration, but the only reason I don't play that is because I don't own one. I want one to test, so I can't really comment on it. It is also better off of cascade because you can play an extra land right away, allowing you to continue your big turn, and it's also better with Future Sight and Magus of the Future (which is worth a slot, imo). Having the extra land drops (on our turn) with the Future Sight iterations in play is incredibly clutch, as it allows us to dig through so many more cards.

Intuition is interesting. I can't comment much since I don't own one and haven't tested it, but I think if you play it, you want to be able to consistently hit a combination of three of the following: three time walks, Eternal Witness, and Archaeomancer. I would try Intuition for sure if I had one.

Greater Good is a card in my list that has been incredibly disappointing. It seems so good on paper that I have not cut it yet, but... it just never seems to be a difference maker.

Deadeye Navigator was in my earlier builds, but I feel this just isn't that strong of a DEN deck. He had his moments, for sure. But he just fizzled a bit too often.

Hellkite Tyrant is very similar. I put him in as an auto-include and just never got any mileage out of him whatsoever. Very disappointing.

I guess I don't really know what Kiki-Jikki is copying. Do you have some insight for me? I am admittedly probably missing some strong interactions. I don't like the :symr::symr::symr: mana cost, as is by FAR my least desirable color.

Riku seems better spent as his own deck to me. I have not tested him, but I envision too often he does nothing. He is so fragile and high profile I wouldn't expect him to live through a turn.

I am not a fan of Mizzet because both he is not much of a presence the turn he hits (typically) and his activated ability relies on :symr:.If it were a activation cost I would see him being better. For the same cmc, I run Prime Speaker Zegana, which has an immediate impact, draws more cards, and hits harder (albeit without evasion).

You'd have to tell me how Mana Reflection has fared. I used to run Boundless Realms for a similar effect (less potential the turn it hits outside of Sword of Feast and Famine, but means business draws for the rest of the game) but cut it because I really don't want to keep ramping once I've hit critical mass. I want my business to mean business

Drumhunter (slow, poor ramp, minimal pay off relative to other spells. I prefer focus to versatility in this deck)

Beguiler of Wills (I'd play any number of steal effects over it, namely Treachery, Sower of Temptation, Gilded Drake, and Molten Primordial)

Warstorm Surge (leaves too much to chance, imo, and gives opponents time to deal with it)

Giant Adaphage (just a fatty, I feel we kill with medium fatties with powerful effects)

Gruul Ragebeast (last thing I care about when I go off is my opponents creatures, typically. Probably could be directly replaced with Molten Primordial to better effect, imo)

Inferno Titan (never been a fan in this format, but love when my opponents play him so I can hit it with Rite of Replication)

The other guys I don't like as much, but I see being useful, just not optimal include

Balefire Dragon (never actually got around to testing him, heard he was disappointing)

Blatant Thievery (on the surface sounds better than Molten Primordial, but untap, haste, and usefulness with Greater Good (negligible since I'm probably going to cut it) and Food Chain (arguably the most powerful, explosive card in the deck) put the Primordial over the top, imo)

Thought Reflection (no immediate impact, only good if you are otherwise doing good things (i.e. win-more))

Capsize (love the card, not for the direction I took the deck in, though)

The strongest thing a Wanderer deck can do bar none is cascade into Jokulhaups, or similar, resolve it, and have a wanderer swinging on an empty board. The game is typically over if jokulhaups resolves, and still in your favor if your opponent is playing counterspells.

no worries about the rambling, i can easily top that. maybe not right now though, since i have some actual work to get to

might add walk and mastery, however i was trying melek recently and the extra turns i felt got annoying for everyone else. probably less so in this deck, though, since they're more likely to equal a win. and they aren't doubled.

loam is a pet card of mine, as is intuition, as is setting up loam with intuition. I could see cutting loam if I feel I'm getting too many drops, but I do love the synergy with loam and exploration/burgeoning/oracle. especially oracle.

might add the magus of the future if i like the enchantment enough.

i can't believe greater good would be anything short of stellar, but I guess I'll have to see. food chain is an intriguing suggestion though.

DEN seemed good with all the etb effects running in the deck. seems worth a try at least.

i've used hellkite tyrant in my zirilan deck and it's always been insanely good there. I think it's at least worth a shot.

kiki-jiki could be cut. like DEN he seems insane with etb but maybe I've ovestimating how much I'm running.

Riku is mostly for the turn after wanderer. I mean, he has no instant board impact usually, but if he's forcing a removal spell that's really the most you can hope for most creatures.

mizzet seems excellent to me - immediately drawing a card, plus being an engine for more draw or removal later seems really good. And I think my mana can support the red decently. Zegana was on the list, but I worry that I'll spend my early turns ramping, then hit zegana off the wanderer and get an overpriced elvish visionary.

boundless realms got cut because i have so few basics.

ohran viper - i might be thinking this deck is slower than it is.
drumhunter - really? he seemed so cool. draw every turn and ramp too? i want to at least try him.
beguiler - she seems so nasty, though, esp with haste. i don't love molten primordial but i'll see how i feel about it after playing this deck for reals.
warstorm surge - but it's guaranteed 7 damage! plus anything else you hit! I dunno, it seems awesome for the same reason I don't like zegana.
adephage - yeah, just a fatty, but it seems like it'd get out of control super fast. i mean, next turn you swing for 14.
ragebeast - it seems cool to me, you'd get 2+ free kills, and it's a 6/6 to boot. I didn't want to run removal that didn't double as a finisher.
inferno titan i could see cutting, although he does seem powerful.
balefire - also been run in zirilan and seemed awesome there.
blatant thievery - why would haste matter? i like the option to hit any permanent, especially. it doubles as ramp.
thought reflection - ok, i'll cut it.
capsize - actually maybe i should cut this. i was thinking bounce wanderer to recast him, but i guess i'm unlikely to have 3 mana open for the buyback if i hit it off cascade.
mystic remora - again, might be thinking too slow. but i figured it's probably good for a few cards early, before most ramp, which is mostly in the 3+ range.
rhystic study - maybe cut this.
SDT - but it seems good.
brainstorm - ok, ok, but you always just do this right before you wanderer, and put the bombiest stuff on your deck. Right? that seems amazing for 1 mana.
magus of the library - i honestly thought this guy seemed awesome. I feel like, turn 1, land, turn 2, land, play him, turn 3, use him, play a land, ramp, turn 4, use him, play a land, ramp, turn 5, wanderer, use him, etc. I dunno, he seems like a strong draw engine for so cheap. and a lot of the other draw could easily refill the hand to activate him again. not to mention, tapping for mana means he's never irrelevant. He seemed really awesome to me, tbh.

The strongest thing a Wanderer deck can do bar none is cascade into Jokulhaups, or similar, resolve it, and have a wanderer swinging on an empty board. The game is typically over if jokulhaups resolves, and still in your favor if your opponent is playing counterspells.

i thought about the haups, but my concern is that instant-speed removal means you're starting over from scratch and now everyone hates you and wanderer costs more. and it's probably really hard to use if it's in your hand. I'd rather using something like wildfire since it preserves your ramp advantage, but i couldn't find room for it.

no worries about the rambling, i can easily top that. maybe not right now though, since i have some actual work to get to

might add walk and mastery, however i was trying melek recently and the extra turns i felt got annoying for everyone else. probably less so in this deck, though, since they're more likely to equal a win. and they aren't doubled.

loam is a pet card of mine, as is intuition, as is setting up loam with intuition. I could see cutting loam if I feel I'm getting too many drops, but I do love the synergy with loam and exploration/burgeoning/oracle. especially oracle.

might add the magus of the future if i like the enchantment enough.

i can't believe greater good would be anything short of stellar, but I guess I'll have to see. food chain is an intriguing suggestion though.

DEN seemed good with all the etb effects running in the deck. seems worth a try at least.

i've used hellkite tyrant in my zirilan deck and it's always been insanely good there. I think it's at least worth a shot.

kiki-jiki could be cut. like DEN he seems insane with etb but maybe I've ovestimating how much I'm running.

Riku is mostly for the turn after wanderer. I mean, he has no instant board impact usually, but if he's forcing a removal spell that's really the most you can hope for most creatures.

mizzet seems excellent to me - immediately drawing a card, plus being an engine for more draw or removal later seems really good. And I think my mana can support the red decently. Zegana was on the list, but I worry that I'll spend my early turns ramping, then hit zegana off the wanderer and get an overpriced elvish visionary.

boundless realms got cut because i have so few basics.

ohran viper - i might be thinking this deck is slower than it is.
drumhunter - really? he seemed so cool. draw every turn and ramp too? i want to at least try him.
beguiler - she seems so nasty, though, esp with haste. i don't love molten primordial but i'll see how i feel about it after playing this deck for reals.
warstorm surge - but it's guaranteed 7 damage! plus anything else you hit! I dunno, it seems awesome for the same reason I don't like zegana.
adephage - yeah, just a fatty, but it seems like it'd get out of control super fast. i mean, next turn you swing for 14.
ragebeast - it seems cool to me, you'd get 2+ free kills, and it's a 6/6 to boot. I didn't want to run removal that didn't double as a finisher.
inferno titan i could see cutting, although he does seem powerful.
balefire - also been run in zirilan and seemed awesome there.
blatant thievery - why would haste matter? i like the option to hit any permanent, especially. it doubles as ramp.
thought reflection - ok, i'll cut it.
capsize - actually maybe i should cut this. i was thinking bounce wanderer to recast him, but i guess i'm unlikely to have 3 mana open for the buyback if i hit it off cascade.
mystic remora - again, might be thinking too slow. but i figured it's probably good for a few cards early, before most ramp, which is mostly in the 3+ range.
rhystic study - maybe cut this.
SDT - but it seems good.
brainstorm - ok, ok, but you always just do this right before you wanderer, and put the bombiest stuff on your deck. Right? that seems amazing for 1 mana.
magus of the library - i honestly thought this guy seemed awesome. I feel like, turn 1, land, turn 2, land, play him, turn 3, use him, play a land, ramp, turn 4, use him, play a land, ramp, turn 5, wanderer, use him, etc. I dunno, he seems like a strong draw engine for so cheap. and a lot of the other draw could easily refill the hand to activate him again. not to mention, tapping for mana means he's never irrelevant. He seemed really awesome to me, tbh.

ok, so that was pretty rambly anyway.

i thought about the haups, but my concern is that instant-speed removal means you're starting over from scratch and now everyone hates you and wanderer costs more. and it's probably really hard to use if it's in your hand. I'd rather using something like wildfire since it preserves your ramp advantage, but i couldn't find room for it.

Well, I now feel like a dolt for misspelling Loam about 1,000 times in one post

I think a lot of the card choices and analyses are going to depend on how much you decide you want to push the envelope with the speed of the deck. I had a much different idea of what I wanted to do until I realized that with the right tuning you can have wanderer hit on (in my current build, which is not fully complete) and over/under of turn 4.5.

Holy bejesus, I might cut Prime Speaker, I just realized half the time she hits for next to nothing. I haven't cascaded into her pretty much ever (weird, now that I think about how many times I've played the damn deck) and didn't actually think about the stacking of the cascade vs. the Wanderer in this instance. On a side note, I'm pretty sure my favorite cascade is first flip Archaeomancer, second flip Time Walk.

But yeah, obviously play the deck how you want, I just think that when you cast a turn 2 Sphinx of Uthuun, you may see my lust for speed in this deck

The strongest thing a Wanderer deck can do bar none is cascade into Jokulhaups, or similar, resolve it, and have a wanderer swinging on an empty board. The game is typically over if jokulhaups resolves, and still in your favor if your opponent is playing counterspells.

While I agree that it's a fantastic cascade, I find Maelstrom Wanderer to be best built to emphasize all-in ramp, so if you either A) Draw 'Haups after the cascade, you never, ever want to use it ever or B) Any opponent goes land, Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Rapid Hybridization, Pongify, Condemn or hits any type of removal before you kill EVERYONE you pretty much just lose because you are out of cards and resources, and they are not.

Also, the game is incredibly not in your favor if they are playing counterspells. In that instance they counter the Wanderer, so everyone is reset, you have roughly zero hand, no resources, and a general who costs :10mana:. Everyone else is playing a less resource-intensive general, and they have more cards to recover with. At least in my meta that's how it would go Don't mean to sound universal.

While I agree that it's a fantastic cascade, I find Maelstrom Wanderer to be best built to emphasize all-in ramp, so if you either A) Draw 'Haups after the cascade, you never, ever want to use it ever or B) Any opponent goes land, Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Rapid Hybridization, Pongify, Condemn or hits any type of removal before you kill EVERYONE you pretty much just lose because you are out of cards and resources, and they are not.

Also, the game is incredibly not in your favor if they are playing counterspells. In that instance they counter the Wanderer, so everyone is reset, you have roughly zero hand, no resources, and a general who costs :10mana:. Everyone else is playing a less resource-intensive general, and they have more cards to recover with. At least in my meta that's how it would go Don't mean to sound universal.

You can top and brainstorm to set them up, you have Cavern of Souls to make your general uncounterable, and you have a second cascade to get your value back. It won't work every single time. Just a majority of the time, which means easy wins.
In a deck that plays Loam as a "pet card" it really improves the value of that too.

I'll preface this by saying that Maelstrom Wanderer is my favorite deck and also my best deck-- I think I have one of the best multiplayer Wanderer decks on Cockatrice, if that counts for anything. (Without infinite combos, since I don't play them in EDH) I'm gonna comment on MrCoupon's post first because I think he took a lot of time to analyze your list.

As far as your ramp, I am not a big fan of Recross the Paths or Life From the Lome. Recross is, in my opinion, worse than the 4 mana get two land spells (of which at least Ranger's Path is absent from your list). The reasoning behind this is, while we are good at clashing, I usually don't want to devote two turns to accomplish what one of the other three mana ramp spells accomplish. Because of the abundance of 3 mana spells that net us two extra mana in the coming turns, it pales in comparison in my mind. Lome is an engine, in my opinion, and not really ramp.

I agree completely. The 4 CMC ramp spells are wayyy better than Loam and Recross.

Urban Evolution is a card I played in my earlier iterations of the deck, but the extra one mana made too much of a difference pretty consistently in comparison to Concentrate or Harmonize. And for the same mana investment, Tidings gets an extra card. I loved the extra land drop at first, but cmc 5 is not where we want to be ramping a mere +1. It's still a good filler card, but I don't like it in a mostly finished list, and in my opinion that's where your deck is at this point. Your framework is really strong, you just need to test and test, and cut and cut. If your testing disagrees with my suggestions, go with your testing.

Greater Good is a card in my list that has been incredibly disappointing. It seems so good on paper that I have not cut it yet, but... it just never seems to be a difference maker.

I don't use this in my list because there are waaaay too many creatures that do not use this with profit. It's good to hit Wanderer himself, that's about it.

Deadeye Navigator was in my earlier builds, but I feel this just isn't that strong of a DEN deck. He had his moments, for sure. But he just fizzled a bit too often.

I, too, took him out. He generates way too much hate and is generally either a win-more or a dead card because you don't have enough mana to utilize him before he gets blasted.

Hellkite Tyrant is very similar. I put him in as an auto-include and just never got any mileage out of him whatsoever. Very disappointing.

I've kept him in my list because he is nice to tutor for when an opponent has tons of artifacts that need to be removed(stolen). If you cascade into him you almost always have a target to attack that will get you some artifacts. He's my primary artifact removal so he stays in my list.

I guess I don't really know what Kiki-Jikki is copying. Do you have some insight for me? I am admittedly probably missing some strong interactions. I don't like the :symr::symr::symr: mana cost, as is by FAR my least desirable color.

Not sure about his list, but Kiki-Jikki is sooo great in my list I can't even emphasize it enough. Copying primordials, Craterhoof Behemoth, Avenger of Zendikar, or anything really nets you tons of profit.

Riku seems better spent as his own deck to me. I have not tested him, but I envision too often he does nothing. He is so fragile and high profile I wouldn't expect him to live through a turn.

In my list he serves as a pseudo-deadeye navigator that can also copy ramp spells, time warps, or any other spell. Lots of variability and usefulness if you have a few open mana.

I am not a fan of Mizzet because both he is not much of a presence the turn he hits (typically) and his activated ability relies on :symr:.If it were a activation cost I would see him being better. For the same cmc, I run Prime Speaker Zegana, which has an immediate impact, draws more cards, and hits harder (albeit without evasion).

Agreed.

To me the weakest looking cards in your list are: [cards]
Ohran Viper (doesn't do anything in this deck, imo)
Drumhunter (slow, poor ramp, minimal pay off relative to other spells. I prefer focus to versatility in this deck)
Beguiler of Wills (I'd play any number of steal effects over it, namely Treachery, Sower of Temptation, Gilded Drake, and Molten Primordial)

Agreed. These are weak cards that don't belong in Wanderer.

Warstorm Surge (leaves too much to chance, imo, and gives opponents time to deal with it)

Disagree, this card is a house and really makes your deck turn into a huge clock. Even better with deathtouch like Acidic Slime.

Giant Adaphage (just a fatty, I feel we kill with medium fatties with powerful effects)
Gruul Ragebeast (last thing I care about when I go off is my opponents creatures, typically. Probably could be directly replaced with Molten Primordial to better effect, imo)

Inferno Titan (never been a fan in this format, but love when my opponents play him so I can hit it with Rite of ReplicationThe other guys I don't like as much, but I see being useful, just not optimal include

Disagree. Never sad to cascade into him because with haste he is either 12 damage to someone's face or a lot of variable removal. Don't take this guy out.

Balefire Dragon (never actually got around to testing him, heard he was disappointing)

Disagree, again. I run a lot of creature tutors and he is one of my primary ways to remove a board with too many creatures.

Blatant Thievery (on the surface sounds better than Molten Primordial, but untap, haste, and usefulness with Greater Good (negligible since I'm probably going to cut it)

I don't run this but I've run into other Wanderer decks that do and this card is really effective as pseudo-removal.

and Food Chain (arguably the most powerful, explosive card in the deck) put the Primordial over the top, imo)

I don't actually run this card because I'm not a fan of exiling my own creatures, however i definitely see its impact and it could be a great card to run, its more of a personal choice for me not to run it.

Thought Reflection (no immediate impact, only good if you are otherwise doing good things (i.e. win-more))
Capsize (love the card, not for the direction I took the deck in, though)
Mystic Remora (good, but takes away from our primary goal and is anti-ramp. Good filler card, though)
Rhystic Study (at three mana I want to be closer to Maelstrom Wanderer. I'll draw off my dedicated draw spells, not give my opponents the option to play around)

These cards are all a waste of space.

Sensei's Divining Top (so much of this deck screams Divining Top, but I have not been impressed with it)

I'll give a longer response later, I'm about to step out. But for all of you with questions or concerns about Food Chain: just try it. I'll take the Pepsi challenge with that guy. It almost always means functionally infinite cascades. You just don't lose with a Food Chain. When it hits play off of a cascade, probably 9 times out of 10, your opponents will never get another turn. It really is that good.

You can top and brainstorm to set them up, you have Cavern of Souls to make your general uncounterable, and you have a second cascade to get your value back. It won't work every single time. Just a majority of the time, which means easy wins.
In a deck that plays Loam as a "pet card" it really improves the value of that too.

The other cascade won't get you value back if it goes off first. I don't get why you wouldn't prefer wildfire, it seems much better to me.

A counterspell is one thing, they'd at least need to be playing blue, but any instant-speed removal vs wanderer and you're in trouble. And even if it goes off, it'll take minimum 9 turns to kill a 4 person table (probably more when people get chumpers), odds are very good that someone will be able to get rid of wanderer before then.

as far as zegana, do people really find her worth it? my main concern is that, unless I stop ramping to play a fatty pre-wanderer, she'll just be a 1/1 or 2/2 frequently.

as far as zegana, do people really find her worth it? my main concern is that, unless I stop ramping to play a fatty pre-wanderer, she'll just be a 1/1 or 2/2 frequently.

Can't really tell how many creatures you are playing since you don't have it listed that way. I've never had a problem with her being any lower than 4/4 (most of the time she's 6/6 or greater for me.. tons of cards) but then again I run 32 creatures.

If in testing she doesn't pan out (she will), just use Sphinx of Uthuun instead.

Having played it with burgeoning, I can now officially say that you people are insane if you don't like it. burgeoning is off-the-charts good in this deck. With all the draw, being able to dump lands reliably is crucial. Hit a T4 wanderer with almost no other ramp using burgeoning...and then i cascaded into arcanis and avenger of zendikar ><.

dead? sometimes, but when it goes, it GOES. That game just wasn't even fair. everyone scooped when I dropped 7 lands 2 turns later...after someone had oringed avenger and then i karn'ed the oring...

I'll probably have to move on to another deck soon, though, people don't seem to like this one.